Sample Pikachu Sells on Mercari

[HumanForScale]

Originally spotted by @Miss_Frizzle , this just sold today on mercari:

Long ago a bulk lot of the Japanese sample eReader cards sold on YHJ. Some of those pics are here: Pokémon TCG Picture Dump

This is the first time I’ve seen another sell publicly. The link is here: メルカリ . I’ve also uploaded to webarchive here for when the mercari link goes down: メルカリ

While I’m very excited if this is real, given the amount of counterfeiting cards that has been going around I’m a little more cautious here. Hoping whoever bought it can scan the eReader strips before sending it off to get slabbed

[ayoveer]

CGC prestine 10 incoming

[rabby250]

@HumanForScale

Hoping whoever bought it can scan the eReader strips before sending it off to get slabbed

Should still be fine even if slabbed, Hit Save! org would gladly lend their e-Reader Pro mod for preserving the dot codes. Are they aware of the cards and happened to have already preserved those?

[Quuador]

Thanks for sharing! This is the first time we see one of these for sale.
With the amount of counterfeit cards going around, I’m indeed curious about its legitimacy. Then again, I don’t think high-def photos of this card are easily available to try and counterfeit it.

And I guess another one to add to my (nice-to-have) wanted list, since almost all of the pictures I’ve seen (except for the ones in the wall-frame) were with a puncture hole in the top-left.

Greetz,
Quuador

[lolzicost]

I’m guessing that it’s real. The seller originally had it at 5m yen, it sold within minutes of lowering the price. A shame they sold without really knowing what they had. Makes you wonder how many more lost cards are just sitting in someone’s closet.

[DarthEevee]

I’m convinced the other 90 copied each of the three scramble secret rares (I’ve only seen like 10 or so graded copies each) are just in a landfill somewhere

[eeveeteam]

@DarthEevee

just in a landfill

They are likely sitting in binders in Japan, next to an Illustrator.

[mthursty]

Sooo cool!! Let’s hope more appear!!!

[rtas]

The real question is how @Miss_Frizzle is able to find these auctions for kangs, snaps, and now this

[Miss_Frizzle]

Loose lips sink ships

[chrispy]

Super cool. How many of these are estimated to be in circulation?

[dromanyte]

@HumanForScale

While I’m very excited if this is real, given the amount of counterfeiting cards that has been going around I’m a little more cautious here.

I’m 96% sure that the e-Card is legit … e-Cards are extremely difficult to counterfeit … Almost any attempt of e-Card counterfeit can be easily detected by eye … Also, people that managed to print their own Dot Codes affirm that they had to do several attempts and a lot of trials …

Something that called my attention was the fact that this e-Card doesn’t have the hole where the metal chain should be … located in the top right part of the card…

@HumanForScale

Hoping whoever bought it can scan the eReader strips before sending it off to get slabbed

Yes, I’m also extremely curious to know what’s exactly the content of this e-Card (Short & Large Dot Code). I have an idea of what’s inside the e-Card because of images …

I have the idea that the Large Dot Code contains required data for “Hold Down Hoppip”, a promotional minigame where Pichu has to avoid that the Hoppips fly away. For that, Pichu has to pull the rope where the Hoppips are tied.

I hope whoever bought the e-Card to dump the e-Reader data and release it to public …

@Quuador

I don’t think high-def photos of this card are easily available to try and counterfeit it.

If you want to counterfeit an e-Card that is actually functional, you need a very high quality scan of the e-Card … In this case, there isn’t a high quality image … for several years, the only images I’ve seen about these e-Cards are the ones everyone knows … Images in extremely low qualities, but were enough for me to write articles for WikiDex about these cards …

@lolzicost

I’m guessing that it’s real. The seller originally had it at 5m yen, it sold within minutes of lowering the price.

I think someone else was watching over the original listing and was just waiting for the seller to reduce the price to something he/she could afford. I’m almost sure that the buyer knew what was he/she buying and know all the context behind the e-Card … it doesn’t have sense to buy a card not knowing what he/she is buying …

GIFT

Btw, I have a gift for all of you …
The people who know me know that I usually work editing card photos/scans/images to make them look similar to a card asset.

I’ve worked editing the SpaceWorld 2001 Pikachu image that was posted in the beginning of this thread …

Well, here you have the image of the Pikachu I’ve edited.

Hope you all appreciate it!!!

[Quuador]

1. The one you see in the auction is the first one to emerge.

If you however mean how many distinct copies we’ve seen in the old pictures, the answer would be 3. One with punctured hole you see in all the pictures in the comments above.

And two in the wall-display (5th row, 15th column; and 6th row, 10th column), which is possibly where this sold copy is from.

Greetz,
Quuador

[fazool]

Please let the Clefairy sample surface please please

[BUEFFES]

Wow if I see right there is a sample Abra?! I hope it surfaces so we all can get a better look.

[Quuador]

Yep, there is: Abra (Sample Set) - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia
And that picture on Bulbapedia is indeed horrid.

Then again, it could be worse. The Pikachu we’re discussing in this thread was also shown in English at the E3 Expo of 2001, yet this is the only picture of it:

It’s behind the Pichu:

Not that the 4-bit Pichu itself is any better.

Then again, the only other picture of the E3 Expo of 2001 is just the bottom 2/3rd of the Dratini. But at least that’s a (slightly) better quality picture.

Greetz,
Quuador

[camrok37]

Still waiting on that Sample Psyduck…the amount of money I would blow on that card

[BUEFFES]

Thanks a lot for the additional Infos!

Oh man I wish these would go on Mercari or anywhere just to take a better look at them.